May 1999 ACFC/SR(1999)007 REPORT SUBMITTED BY ITALY PURSUANT TO ARTICLE 25, PARAGRAPH 1 OF THE FRAMEWORK CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES ______ (Received on 03 May 1999) ______ ACFC/SR(1999)007 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS part i Introduction PART II Article 1 Article 2 Article 3 Article 4 Article 5 Article 6 Article 7 Article 8 Article 9 Article 10 Article 11 Article 12 Article 13 Article 14 Article 15 Article 16 Article 17 Article 18 Article 19 Article 20 Article 21 Article 22 Article 23 Article 30 3 ACFC/SR(1999)007 PART I INTRODUCTION The purpose of this Report is to provide a general presentation of the legislative and other measures taken for the protection of minorities, from which it will be seen that Italy has made a significant commitment in this field. The information set out in Part I of the Report will, of course, be described more fully and in greater detail in Part II under the provisions of the Convention referred to in the body of the Report and in accordance with the Outline for Reports drawn up by the Council of Europe. The Report has been prepared by the Ministry of the Interior (Central Department for the Problems of Frontier Areas and Ethnic Minorities), with the assistance of the Office of the Council of Ministers (Department for Regional Affairs), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Education. When the Report was being drawn up it was also considered appropriate to seek the opinion of CONFEMILI (National Federative Committee for Linguistic Minorities in Italy). Italy’s policy concerning the protection of national minorities The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities entered into force in Italy on 3 March 1998, following the adoption of Law No 302 of 28 August 1997 authorising its ratification and the deposit of Italy’s instrument of ratification on 3 November 1997. The guide to the drafting of the Reports to be submitted pursuant to Article 25 paragraph 1 of the Convention provides that Part I is to contain an introduction describing the way in which the Convention has been implemented in each country. It is clear, moreover, that an exhaustive account of the commitment and the efforts which Italy has made over the years in relation to the protection of minorities, in accordance with the principles set out in the Convention, must necessarily take account of the period preceding the adoption of the Convention. For historical reasons Italy has a multilingual context, with different populations which have been settled in its territory for centuries; it includes communities whose languages are German, Albanian, Greek, Slovenian and Croat, Franco-Provençal, French, Occitan, Catalan, Ladin, Sardinian and Friulian. The reasons for the presence of these groups in Italy are very complex. Linguistic minorities have settled in 13 Italian regions, apart from the two Provinces with Special Statutes, Trentino and Bolzano, which form the Region of Trentino-Alto Adige. Having regard to this linguistic and cultural wealth, the importance of which was taken into consideration by the Constituent Assembly, the Constitution includes, among its fundamental principles, a specific provision on the protection of linguistic minorities, namely Article 6, which provides that “The Republic shall safeguard linguistic minorities by means of special provisions”. ACFC/SR(1999)007 4 Particular attention was given to the protection and problems of linguistic minorities at the time of the foundation of the Italian Republic, and a significant and complex body of legislation relating to these matters was enacted during the years that followed. The subject has always been a central issue for both Parliament and the Government, and this was recently reaffirmed in October 1998 when the President of the Council of Ministers, presenting the Government’s programme to Parliament, emphasised that the Government, in order to ensure “the equality of all citizens before the law, [would] devote particular attention to ethnic minorities, by providing for the dynamic development of their special autonomous powers in order to protect their special features, particularly with a view to possible constitutional or electoral reforms”. In the Italian legal system the concept of “minority” is linked exclusively to that of language, or, rather, linguistic minority, on the basis of Article 6 of the Constitution. All other factors capable of distinguishing a minority, such as ethnic group, religion, race etc., are dealt with in other general articles of the Constitution; these articles provide that citizens are equal before the law without distinction as to sex, race, language, religion, political opinions and personal or social conditions, and guarantee personal freedoms, the right of assembly, the right of association and the right to profess one’s religion freely, both individually and in association, to promote that religion and to worship in private or in public. The fundamental aspect to emerge from these articles constitutes and defines the position of each and every individual vis-à-vis the Italian legal system: the Constitution asserts the principles of freedom and equality. These two principles permeate the entire Italian legal system; they establish that all citizens are entitled to equal treatment under the same conditions before the law and represent a crucial point on which the Constitution rests. The Italian Constitution contains the following two fundamental aspects: (a) absolute respect for the freedom guaranteed in Article 2, which states that “the Republic recognises and guarantees the inviolable rights of man, both as an individual and as a member of the social groups in which one’s personality finds expression, and it requires the performance of imperative political, economic and social duties”. (b) equality of treatment, which is clearly provided for in Article 3 paragraph 1, which confers equal social status and equality before the law on all citizens “without distinction as to sex, race, language, religion, political opinions, and personal or social conditions”. This paragraph, which establishes the equality of each individual, is supplemented by paragraph 2 of the same article, which affirms the principle of genuine equality and states that “it is the duty of the Republic to remove all economic and social obstacles which, by limiting the freedom and equality of citizens, prevent the full development of the individual and the participation of all workers in the political, economic and social organisation of the country”. It follows that the institutions are required not only to adopt the same approach when dealing with similar situations but also to use all the appropriate legislative and administrative means of achieving the objective laid down in the Constitution of compensating for social inequality. These principles, which were already set out in the Statuto Albertino (Constitution of the Kingdom of Italy), acquired additional status and force in a rigid Constitution, ie one which can be amended only by means of a very strict procedure. 5 ACFC/SR(1999)007 This demonstrates Italy’s profound and firmly entrenched concern for human rights and fundamental freedoms and, more generally, for all minority or less favoured populations. In this context, Italy has ratified and implemented the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination drawn up in New York on 7 March 1966 (Law No 654 of 13 October 1975); since the Italian Government considered it necessary to supplement and amend the existing legislation on racial, ethnic and religious discrimination as a matter of urgency in order to provide more effective means of preventing and prosecuting intolerance, they promulgated Order No 122 of 26 April 1993, which subsequently became Law No 205 of 25 June 1993 laying down “Urgent measures relating to racial, ethnic and religious discrimination”. The fight against discrimination in general, which merits special attention in this account, was also dealt with in Law No 40 of 6 March 1998 on immigration and the status of aliens: Section 41 paragraph 1 provides that “discrimination exists where there is conduct which directly or indirectly gives rise to distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference by reason of race, national or ethnic origin or religious beliefs or practices, the purpose or effect of which is to prevent or jeopardise the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, in conditions of equality, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or other spheres”. Enforcement of the principle of non-discrimination is clearly guaranteed by Section 42 of that Law, which provides that a civil action may be brought against discrimination: anyone who considers that he is the victim of discrimination may apply to the Pretura (magistrate’s court) for an injunction to put an end to the discrimination complained of. Section 42 also provides for the establishment of Monitoring, Information and Legal Aid Centres for victims of discrimination on grounds of race, ethnic group, nationality or religion. A number of Institutes for Research into Discrimination are already in operation (the National Institute for Research into Xenophobia and the Institute of the Region of Piedmont for Research into Racism, Antisemitism and Xenophobia in Italy). This Report is clearly not the appropriate place to deal with the law and regulations on aliens, in particular the recent mass migrations from east-European, Mediterranean, African and Asian countries, which are of immediate concern to Italy and other countries. It should be pointed out, none the less, that members of the various communities are given the opportunity to become integrated within the social and economic fabric by virtue of Law No 40 of 6 March 1998 and Legislative Decree No 286 of 25 July 1998, which consolidates in a single text all the provisions on aliens; this text favours the integration process while at the same time respecting the culture, traditions and religion of origin.